November 11 (SeeNews) - EU-backed sustainable energy investor EIT InnoEnergy said it has signed an investment agreement with Romanian manufacturer of lithium-ion batteries and tailor-made storage systems Prime Batteries Technology, which plans to scale up its annual output to 8GWh by 2026.
The investment formalises EIT InnoEnergy as a shareholder in Prime Batteries Technology, and will support the company in achieving its ambition to scale up annual production output to 8GWh, EIT InnoEnergy said in a press release on Thursday.
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"We are delivering advanced storage solutions to various international customers, and we’ve already secured majority of the orders for 2023 and 2024," Prime Batteries Technology CEO Vicentiu Ciobanu said.
"Due to growing demand, we need to increase our production capacity. Our ambition is to scale up our yearly production output to 2GWh by 2024 and to 8 GWh by 2026. We will do this by further developing our smart factory that at the same time enables us to make batteries at a significantly lower cost," Ciobanu added.
According to EIT InnoEnergy, with the value of the global battery market due to double in the next four years as demand grows rapidly for lithium-ion batteries - and in Europe, this demand outstrips production. Dynamic growth and strengthening of the continent’s supply chain are vital, as Europe is on its way to become the second-largest battery producer after China by 2025.
"Active investment in the electrification of Europe is key to the continent’s energy security, and to fast track the transition towards sustainability," EIT InnoEnergy CEO Diego Pavia said.
EIT InnoEnergy is an the innovation engine for sustainable energy supported by the European Institute of Innovation & Technology (EIT), a body of the European Union.
Prime Batteries Technology was established in 2016 and manufactures produces state-of-the-art lithium-ion batteries and tailor-made battery systems for the automotive, smart grids, and industrial sectors at its plant in Cernica, near Bucharest, where it employs 35.
The company's net profit soared to 5.7 million lei (1.16 million euro/1.17 million euro) in 2021 from 391,643 lei a year earlier, while its turnover grew grew more than five times on the year to 38.3 million lei, data available on the finance ministry's website showed.
At the end of September, Romania's state-owned export-import bank, Exim Bank, announced that its subsidiary, Banca Romaneasca, will provide a 5 million euro ($4.85 million) loan to Prime Batteries Technology.
(1 euro=4.8919 lei)